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I’ve heard there are three common responses to anxiety or fear: freeze, fight or flight. Now, my PhD is in pure maths, so I have no idea if that’s 100% right, but it got me thinking about stress over questions in the viva. If an examiner asks a tough question or makes an observation that isn’t in line with the way you think, you could:

Freeze: mind goes blank, no idea what to do, just hold still and hope that they move on.

Fight: go to war with them, take no prisoners, do everything to bring their arguments to their knees.

Flight: try to umm and ahh your way free, take evasive action and hope you get out.

Fortunately, there’s another option: Figure it out. Take a pause, think about what’s actually been said; ask some more questions if need be. Make sure you understand what your examiner has said. Ask them why. Get as much information as you can, and then try to resolve the situation.

There’s a really great story and idea behind the aggregation of marginal gains (see here) but simply: small changes can add up to huge improvements. You don’t have to make a single massive difference, lots of small differences could be just as powerful. If you wanted to make a 1% difference to your viva prep, what could you do? What tools would you need? What questions could you ask? How big a change would you have to make in order to see huge improvements?

Some 1% ideas from me:

Put Post Its at the start of every chapter. This will take two minutes but will make chapters and pages easier to find.

Use a sheet of paper to cover pages as you read through during prep. You won’t skim or skip sections, and will read everything.

Ask friends to surprise you with questions about your research. You’ll grow to feel more comfortable with unexpected questions.

Practise pausing before you answer a question. You’ll feel more confident about that small silence.

1% improvements add up. They don’t have to have huge time or opportunity costs to implement. What else could you do?

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I felt like I had done enough viva preparation when I went to bed on the evening of June 1st 2008. I’d read my thesis. I’d made notes. I’d dug out all of the papers I thought were useful. I had packed my bag – including two textbooks just in case – and rehearsed my slides for my presentation. I was ready. I had everything I needed. I’d had plenty of time to get to that point.

I’d even packed a bottle of water and two chocolate bars in my bag. Prepared.

The next morning, viva day, I got to the university and went straight to my supervisor’s office. Knock-knock, “Hugh, can I just check, when we talk about genus 2 handlebodies, they’re…”

If you keep thinking, if you keep going, you’ll always find more. More things to do. More questions to ask. More things to check up on with your supervisor.

Enough for me was being able to find things in my thesis, being sure of my proofs, being clear in my mind about the results I’d got – and having everything I thought I needed in my bag the night before.

What does enough look like for you? Think about it, make some decisions. Make a plan. Now you know what you have to do to get to “enough”.

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What would the opposite of good viva preparation look like? I asked this question in my first book, Fail Your Viva – which, incidentally, has pretty good reviews on Amazon – but if you want the short version, here it is:

Never read your thesis.

Never ask for help.

Ignore any thoughts about possible questions.

Don’t have any kind of practise.

Basically do nothing.

Going right off the deep end: burn your thesis, trash the backups, pile your desk and bookshelf contents into a box and drive to a landfill. Decide not to turn up.

So: if that’s the opposite of good viva prep, what are you going to do?

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There’s lots and lots to unpack about the viva. Questions, answers, preparation, people, the PhD process, research, confidence and so much more! We can’t cover everything in one post, but what can we do…? How about the following: aspects of the viva and questions that could be helpful.

A is for Advice: take advice from anyone who can help. Who could give you great advice about the viva?

B is for Better: this is you at the end of the PhD. In what ways have you improved over the last few years?

C is for Confidence: it’s OK to feel nervous, but it’s right to feel good about your work. What can you do to build up your confidence?

D is for Defence: an alternate name for the viva. Are you ready to defend your choices?

E is for Examiners: they’ll be ready for the viva. What are you doing to get ready?

F is for Failure: it’s a remote possibility but a persistent thought. What can you do to push it aside?

G is for Good: there’s a lot of good stuff in your thesis (or you wouldn’t be where you are). What three things jump out when you think about it now?

H is for Help: ask for what you need. So… What do you need?

I is for I-Don’t-Know: it’s fine to say this in the viva. What do you feel uncertain about?

J is for Journey: it’s taken some time to get to where you are. How far have you come?

K is for Kit: every candidate needs to take their thesis, pen and paper and water. What else would be useful to you?

L is for Learning: you cannot get to the end of the PhD unchanged. What have you learned along the way?

M is for Minor: expect that you’ll have minor corrections because most people do. How will you fit them around everything else in your life that you have to do?

N is for Need: there’s lots of advice about what you “should” do to prepare, or “should” do or say in the viva. But what do you need to do to feel as confident as possible?

O is for Obstacles: there’s no chance that you finished without encountering problems. What obstacles have you overcome during your PhD?

P is for Preparation: success and confidence in the viva is not down to hope. What are you going to do to be prepared?

Q is for Questions: there are 1001+ things you could be asked in the viva. What questions have you been asked about your thesis?

R is for Research: this is how you got to where you are. So what have you done?

S is for Summaries: making summaries of your thesis is a good exercise and produces a valuable resource. What formats work for you?

T is for Thesis: you wrote a book! Congratulations – now what can you usefully add in annotations in preparation for the viva?

U is for Understanding: this is what you need from friends and family, as they might not know what the viva is about. How can you help them give this to you?

V is for Valuable: your thesis has to contain something of value. What do you think is valuable in your research?

W is for Why: the fundamental question. Why? (…did you do the research? …does it matter? …is it right?)

X marks the spot: some things in your thesis really are more valuable than others. When annotating how are you going to highlight them?

Y is for Yes: a celebratory yes!!! (what else did you think you might be saying at the end of the viva?)

Z is for Zzzzzzz: you could easily feel exhausted by the end of the viva. Or are you going out to celebrate? 🙂

Not the whole of the viva experience or viva preparation by any stretch, but we’ve covered a lot. What do you think? Any suggestions or substitutions?

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If your viva’s not coming up yet, or it’s in the past, find someone to help. If you know someone who has their viva soon, or someone who is finishing their PhD, ask them what they need. Don’t assume that you have all the answers or the right way to do something. Check what they need first. Then see if you can meet those needs. If you can’t, see if you can figure out what else might help.

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Google around and you’ll find lots of articles about problems with making positive changes. People don’t eat well because they don’t buy good foods. People don’t exercise because they don’t have an environment around them that supports exercise. People don’t practise with a hobby because they keep their materials shut up, and so on.

One way to get around this is to get rid of friction in the situations: actually buy healthy stuff, use books as free weights, keep your paints or guitar out where they’re in reach. Organise yourself so that you free up time to do what you want. Then you can’t rationalise your way out of doing what you need.

What are the sources of friction in your viva prep environment?

Is it having space, time and quiet? What can you do to address that? Who can help?

Do you need journal articles and certain knowledge? How are you going to get it?

Feel like you want the “right kind” of stationery to make notes or summaries? Where can you get what you need?

Once you get rid of the friction you can get to work. Without these kinds of friction you’ll work better too.

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What would a well-reviewed viva look like? Given that there’s two parties, what would they say about each other? I wonder…

Best examiners ever! Felt like they had really read my thesis and asked me lots of interesting questions. Was such a thrill to talk about my work with them. Gave me a lot to think about too, but all good. Would totally recommend to future candidates!

What kind of examiners would you give this review to? What are you looking for? Who might fit this description?

Stellar candidate, five stars! Took the time to think through our questions and answer our concerns. Clearly well-prepared: confident responses, excellent research. We wish them all the best for the future. Congratulations.

What would you need to do between now and the viva to get a review like that? What are you going to do?